Prendergast no-no means Pirates a go for Big East Tournament

The Seton Hall baseball team earned a 1-0 victory over Big East rivals Villanova in game two of its double-header on Sunday with a historic no-hit performance from Seton Hall’s Zach Prendergast, one of many positives for a Pirates team that enjoyed a convincing three-game sweep of the home side in Plymouth Meeting, Pa.

After two complete games were thrown in the days’ earlier seven-inning contest by Cullen Dana and Hunter Schryver, Prendergast stepped it up a notch, striking out a career-high 10 batters while not allowing any hits or walks. Prendergast needed only 82 pitches to achieve the no-hitter.

Photo via SHU Athletics

Prendergast, from Horsham, Pa., only miles from Plymouth Meeting where the game took place, is finishing his senior season with two of his best outings: a complete game shutout on May 6 against Creighton and Sunday’s no-hitter against Villanova.

As Villanova failed to get past the Pirate’s impressive pitching, Seton Hall managed to sneak in a run in the top of the third inning. Jackson Martin hit a double to get to second base and managed to advance to third on a Ryan Ramiz fly out. From there Matt Toke stepped up and batted Martin home to give the Pirates the only run of the game, and the only insurance that Prendergast needed.

Ramiz was also a standout player throughout the entire series in Plymouth and continued his fine form into game two of the doubleheader. Ramiz, who batted over .600 in the series, went 2-4 in the series’ final game and registered his team-leading 16th stolen base of the season.

With the series sweep done and dusted, the Pirates cement their spot in a seventh consecutive Big East Tournament. Butler was scoreboard watching throughout the afternoon but is no longer able to best Seton Hall’s record.

The Pirates have now seen no-hitters thrown by one of their aces in two consecutive seasons after Shane McCarthy’s perfect game last year.

Seton Hall will be back in action on Tuesday, May 16 when it hosts Monmouth in the final game at Owen T. Carroll Field of the regular season.

Andrew Kosinski can be reached at andrew.kosinski@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @andrewksnsk.